Image taken from U.S Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library

Canada’s Environment Minister, the Honourable Peter Kent, announced today that polar bears will be designated a species of special concern under the federal Species at Risk Act.  ”Canada is home to two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population and we have a unique conservation responsibility to effectively care for them,” said Minister Kent.  I sincerely agree with his statement.

Our province of Ontario is home to the southernmost population of polar bears in the world – a species that is widely recognized as suffering the most immediate impacts of climate change. Scientists warn that there is a high probability that Ontario’s population of about 1,000 polar bears will be gone from the province within 45 years due to decreases in sea ice in Hudson Bay, which constitute an integral part of their habitat.

Polar bears were listed as a threatened species under Ontario’s Endangered Species Act in September 2009; this designation constitutes a higher risk level and even more of an imperative for action than the federal listing announced today.

Our provincial law obligates the Minister of Natural Resources to ensure the preparation of a completed recovery strategy within two years of the species’ listing.    Right now, only a draft recovery strategy for polar bears exists – without a finalized strategy, the process of planning for conservation action is at a standstill.  It is critical that the Ontario government properly follow the Endangered Species Act process, a topic I discussed in my 2009 Special Report.

At the next step in the process, the Ontario government is meant to lay out all the options and we begin the public dialogue which likely involves making some difficult decisions.  It’s here where we can weigh socio-economic considerations and even make moral choices.  But if we don’t even get to that stage, the public is deprived of a transparent and accountable process.  That’s the core purpose of our Environment Bill of Rights and my job as Environmental Commissioner to warn when it’s off track.

What’s lost if this process isn’t followed is public confidence in how our laws are meant to work.  Also, in this case, we haven’t been given the chance to publicly debate what we’re going to do about an iconic and imperilled species, which may be gone from the Ontario that our grandchildren will inherit.  I hope we get back on track quickly.